SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CALIBRATING AND ADJUSTING A HEADING REFERENCE SYSTEM

摘要

Systems and methods of calibrating and adjusting for deviations in a vehicle's heading system, such as the attitude heading and reference system of an aircraft or the heading system of a ship, positioned along the Earth's surface involve calibrating magnetometers for hard iron and misalignment errors using single heading measurements. This can be accomplished by obtaining both actual and theoretical readings for the magnetometer of the heading system, and comparing these values to obtain calibration values for the heading system. The vehicle may be repositioned, such as to North, South, East, and west magnetic headings, with the procedure repeated at each of these headings, and the calibration values averaged, further increasing the accuracy.

主权项

1. A system for recalibrating an aircraft attitude and reference heading system, the system comprising:
an aircraft; a memory; at least one magnetometer coupled to the memory; a processor coupled to the at least one magnetometer and memory, the processor being configured to:
obtain an actual reading from the at least one magnetometer while the aircraft is stationary and positioned along the Earth's surface at a single known magnetic heading;determine a theoretical reading for the at least one magnetometer at the known magnetic heading;calculate a recalibrated magnetic gain and offset based, at least in part, on the actual reading and the theoretical reading;utilize the recalibrated magnetic gain and offset to determine a recalibrated magnetic heading for the aircraft;determine a misalignment value based, at least in part, on a comparison of the known magnetic heading and the recalibrated magnetic heading; andutilize the misalignment value to adjust the heading system for misalignment errors.